


Ordinary

by Pomelofangirl



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-11
Updated: 2014-09-11
Packaged: 2018-02-17 00:13:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2289884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pomelofangirl/pseuds/Pomelofangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once you are 20 you are just an ordinary person.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ordinary

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for Haruka's birthday bash on tumblr.  
> So yeah, before season 2 started, and all that.  
> I'm posting it here now because of reasons.

Once you are 20 you are just an ordinary person.

At midnight the 30th of June the year Haruka Nanase turns 20 years old, his cellphone goes crazy.

Messages from his friends and high school team-mates fill the inbox and Haruka just stares at the device as if it was the creation of Satan.

He never had much use for his phone when he was younger but the day his team went apart – with Rin pursuing his dream and Makoto going to university – he treated it as the only link to his friends and his window to reality.

He still didn’t like when it went crazy with all the messages appearing at once, plus his boyfriend has this habit of wishing him „Happy Birthday” on every social media available.

As if that would compensate his absence during this day and any other days that would come.

But deep inside Haruka knows that it is good that Rin is pursuing his dream, and he is on his way to achieve Olympic gold.

He himself had found a job at the swimsuit store and lived in Iwatobi to earn money for college, as his parents won’t be able to sustain him.

Rin miraculously agreed to that. So of course they spend hours on the phone every day, but it isn’t the same when he only hears his voice and couldn’t see him or touch him.

Haru misses Rin so fucking much that it isn’t even funny.

And here he is at 20 about to become an ordinary person.

Do ordinary people receive messages at midnight with the wishing of happy birthday?

Haruka realized that probably not.

But he wasn’t ordinary… yet.

He always wanted to have that alternative to swim. Swimming was everything to him, not only an escape but also as means to change his life. Thanks to swimming he felt closer to water, and thanks to feeling water he was able to spot the differences, the rifts and changes of the water even if it was only a pool.

Thanks to that skill, he was able to meet and befriend (because falling in love at 12 is not a thing) Rin, the boy who changed his life.

And now here he is, bound by the promise of mutual life with the one and only, waiting like a wife for his husband to come back home from the Olympics.

He went on with his daily life and this day is like any other. But with the constant buzzing of his phone, reminding him that he grew a year older, a year that will determine whether he is ordinary or not.

The messages on his phone were from his friends and family, coworkers and of course Rin also had to remind him that not only did he grow older but that he is there, at the other end of the country, thinking about him. Even if he physically couldn’t be with him, he still remembers and still treats this as an important day.

Haru would of course prefer Rin to be here with him, but life was not that easy. It’s not like Rin was going to wait for him at home, or travel so many kilometers just to spend one evening with Haru.

They talked about that earlier. And Haru shared the insecurity that comes with him being 20 and becoming ordinary. That being the adult would mean the end of these weird things, like childhood promises or making rainbows or even that crazy idea to aim with Rin for the Olympics.

Because being ordinary meant not only doing the boring stuff and quitting swimming but also doing what the society expects of you. That is, finding a stable job, or getting an education and getting married.

Being an Olympic swimmer was none of these things. Though Haru didn’t deny that he did plan to marry Rin one day. And that he was raising money to be just that – an Olympic swimmer together with Rin Matsuoka.

These thoughts occupy him as he heads for the party that was obviously a surprise party but Makoto was too much of a sweetheart to keep that a secret. And Haru was grateful for that. While he didn’t mind little surprises from time to time, he didn’t want to be surprised by lots of people that he doesn’t know waiting for him to interact with them. That required too much effort that he wasn’t willing to give to anyone but his closest friends.

Of course a year earlier, when they celebrated his 19th birthday, Rin and Nagisa had the great idea to do a surprise party for Haru which involved not informing him about any of it. So when he thought that they would just head to the pool or somewhere he knew, he was surprised that they went in a direction he’d never been to.

It was a seafood restaurant which served different dishes with mackerel, and in the dining room there was a huge waterfall.

Haruka had no idea how did they manage to reproduce such a magnificent waterfall inside a building. But that and the presence of his friends made it the best sight he’d ever seen.

He goes to the restaurant with seafood and waterfalls that they discovered the previous year.

There is only his high school swim team except for Miss Amakata who actually works on this day. It is a Wednesday, so it is kind of a miracle that all of them – except for Rin – gathered just to spend these hours with him.

For once, nobody complains that he got every dish with mackerel or water. He is grateful for that as this was one of the things he wanted to keep. Mackerel was delicious and good for his diet.

While they eat, Haru’s phone receives messages from Rin almost non-stop.

_I wonder what he wants from me. He sent me messages on every possible account 20 messages ago._

But Haru didn’t look at his phone, and enjoyed the time with his friends.

They later part because this was a normal school/working day and they have to be at work the next day early in the morning. Around 8pm Haru arrives home and sees the messages from Rin. They were nothing special – just the wishes of happy birthday in every possible language in the world. Rin really had to be bored to send him such mundane things.

Haru calls him because it was the usual time of the day he’d call him and then they’d talk about their day and other things.

But when Rin picks up, the signal and sound quality is somehow off. Haru was accustomed to the sounds of the city, but now it sounds like he is in a crowded place.

„Hi Rin.”

„Hello Haru. Did you get all my messages?”

„That was unnecessary.”

At that moment Haru hears the sounds of a train. It was not only the sound of train and rails but the distinct ones of a train travelling long distances.

„Rin?”

„Yeah?”

„Where are you? ”

„I’m… on my way home. From practice you know. We ended a bit sooner and I missed my bus so I had to take the train.”

„Ah I see. Well then I won’t disturb you.”

„You never disturb me, Haru. But I think I’ll call you when I get home ok?”

„Yeah. You do that.”

They end the call and Haru lies on the floor. He stares at the celling and wonders about this day. Nothing unusual happened. Was this the start of his life as an ordinary person? Will every day look like this?

He closes his eyes and lets himself rest for a bit.

When he is about to fall asleep, 45 minutes after he talked with Rin he hears his phone buzz for the umpteenth time that day. It didn’t end at the short message, so he had to pick it up.

„Mmm yeah?”

„I am home now.” the train sounds vanished so Haru figures that Rin really did arrive home.

„That’s good.”

„Yeah… Listen, Makoto said that you forgot your wallet at the restaurant. He’ll be by your front door in about… five minutes?”

„Yeah ok.” he is still a bit drowsy so it doesn’t occur to Haru that Makoto wasn’t even in Iwatobi at this hour.

„But how are you? Is everything ok now?” Not thinking much about it Haruka opens the door to his house.

Despite knowing that if he would forget his wallet, they wouldn’t let him leave.

Despite knowing that Makoto would enter by the back way, as opening the door for him was not something Haruka did.

There, behind the open door, stands his boyfriend, Rin Matsuoka in all his perfect glory, smiling as if he saw a miracle. The evening sun is shining behind him, as if to underline the fact that Rin being here wasn’t possible.

Indeed, such surprise that Haruka expressed was not to be seen ever again.

„Yo Haru.”

„But… what are you doing here?”

„I told you. I was on my way home. And here I am.”

There were so many questions to ask, such as how did Rin get here, and shouldn’t he be at the practice? What about the Olympics? And why would he even do such thing for Haru?

But all Haru is able to do, driven by his yearning and loneliness because of the absence of Rin, is to go into Rin’ arms, phone forgotten on the pavement.

Rin was surprised. But his smile grew even wider if it was possible.

Once you are 20 you are just an ordinary person.

But as long as Haruka has Rin in his life, he won’t be ordinary.


End file.
